Neck Pain
Your pain in the neck can have a few names. Sometimes we get neck pain when we turn our heads side to side or when we look up or look down. These types of movement pains are typically muscular. The complex part about treating this type of neck pain is finding the right muscle causing the restriction. There are so many tiny spinal muscles that attach vertebrae to vertebrae and vertebrae to ribs and vertebrae to scapula or even vertebrae to back of head! Any one or several of these can be your source of neck pain or headache for that matter. It is best to have a Doctor of Chiropractic who specializes in soft tissue therapy investigate the cause of your neck pain.
And like lower back pain the neck pain can be coming from the facet joints locking. Facet Joints are where the surfaces of two adjacent vertebrae meet. The joints are fluid lined and surrounded by a capsule. If we find ourselves with facet joints locking it presents as localized pain that is usually worsened with extension or rotation (looking up or twisting). A chiropractic adjustment or manipulation can be the fastest and best remedy for this type of common neck pain.
Disc Herniations in the neck are painful and complicated and take time to heal. When pressures within the discs (fluid filled shock absorbers between the vertebrae) build up it can cause a bulge in one side of the disc that can cause pressure on a nearby nerve. Depending on the level of disc that nerve pain can travel down a specific pattern in the arm and hand. The success in treating neck herniations comes from rehabilitating the muscles of the shoulder and upper back along with the neck. The back and shoulders need to be a stable foundation for the neck to sit on or else you can end up with a bobble head which is not very pleasant feeling!